Common Illnesses at Pet Facilities & How You Can Help Keep Your Pet Healthy

Vacation FUN!

There’s nothing more exciting than being able to plan a vacation or trip away to some fun destination or activity we really enjoy. Or, maybe it’s a couple of hours at the salon to get pampered. The things we’ll get to do, the people we’ll get to meet and maybe the yummy food we’ll get to eat! Maybe it’s just a quick trip to someplace fun right here in Virginia. Or, it could be something a little more ambitious or exotic – maybe a trip out-of-state or visiting another country. Regardless, our focus is typically on the experience – having fun!

Packing and Preparing

But once we start getting more into our travel plans we realize that there are things we need to do so that we can make sure we truly enjoy the trip or experience. How we’re going to get there, packing the right clothes, what will the weather be like and what do I need to do in order to stay healthy while away? For a domestic trip, staying healthy isn’t too much of a challenge. If it’s a cold weather trip we pack warm clothes. If it’s a trip south we’ll take cooler clothing, maybe some bug spray and sunscreen. For a foreign trip, the clothing choices will be similar but there are sometimes illnesses that we need to be protected from, which means a trip to the doctor to be vaccinated. Even when we visit the salon there are things we need to do in preparation. Regardless of where the need for fun takes us, there are unfortunately inherent risks or threats that we need to be prepared for.

The same is true for our pets. Just venturing outside into our backyard or in our neighborhood can bring all types of possibilities for our pets. Our dogs LOVE to smell and eat almost anything. Just in our neighborhoods, we have squirrels, rabbits, deer, geese, ducks, mice, birds, etc. that our pets love to investigate – yuck! If we have a social lifestyle with our pet – they’re visiting other dogs, playing in a river or pond, visiting a dog park, maybe frolicking in the mountains, traveling to doggie sporting events, riding in a boat – there’s a big list of what our pets can enjoy!

Take Preventative Steps to Keep Your Pets Healthy

As our pets enjoy these experiences, like us, there are inherent risks or threats associated with them. Therefore it is our job to understand and anticipate those risks so that we can keep our pet as healthy as possible. As you plan for your pet’s lifestyle include a conversation with your veterinarian about your plans for your pet and what you may want them to experience. Your Vet is the best resource for keeping our pets healthy.

Places like Holiday Barn Pet Resorts are considered “collectives” or community areas for pets. A place where many dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, ferrets, etc. are all coming together for some type of pet related service. Aggressive cleaning of the environment in a collective space is crucial as well as controlling the intermingling of pets. But equally important is taking preventative steps before the pet ever enters a collective space in order to keep them healthy.

Common Dog & Cat Illnesses at Pet Boarding Facilities

We have identified those illnesses that provide the greatest risk within our type of business. They are determined by the rate of incidence and then the risk of both mortality and morbidity. There are other illnesses a pet can experience that they can be protected from and you should talk with your vet about the best prevention.

The illnesses that we have identified as inherent risks in a collective like Holiday Barn Pet Resorts are:

Therefore, we require pets to be vaccinated for those listed in order to decrease the chance that they will experience these illnesses. Initially, it looks like a long list. There are more illnesses that your pet can be vaccinated for along with protection from heartworms, fleas, and ticks – all of which we recommend you do as well. There are also others that do not have vaccinations or preventative medications, such as Mycoplasma – yes that’s correct, dogs can get a common cold just like us.

The Dog Flu

There is a lot of conversation regarding the Dog Flu viruses and adding this requirement was a challenging decision for us. But after looking at our population of dogs visiting Holiday Barn, where they come from, their lifestyle and the expectation our customers have we knew it was the right choice. We love taking care of dogs and cats from all of the United States and even some from other countries. Approximately 25% of our daily boarding volume visit us from out-of-state and we are thankful they value our resorts enough to travel here for our services.

That is why at Holiday Barn Pet Resorts we think it is critical for pet owners to have thorough conversations with their Vet in order to best prepare their pet for the lifestyles planned for them. We greatly respect the oversight of our Veterinarian Community and how they choose to apply the science or chemistry of vaccinations. At Holiday Barn, we are not medical professionals and defer to the decisions your vet makes in order to keep your pet healthy. BUT, only if you are responsible for communicating to your vet what you plan on allowing your pet to experience. We do know that there are medical conditions or reasons that could cause it not to be safe for a pet to receive a vaccination – please have your Vet relay that information to us so we can work together on a good solution and so that they can have fun with us!

THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for sharing your pet with us, we love spending time with them!